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Thursday, May 26, 2011

Artie

Seen at Fizz Bar & Grill at around 10:00 p.m., Monday May 23rd, 2011

The music is terrible this evening! Too much 1920's Charleston nonsense. I don't come here for that. I don't even come here to dance with the pretty young ladies in their colorful dresses. (Although that doesn't hurt--they're always willing to indulge a harmless little old man like me.) Really I'm here because it reminds me of my parents.

Mom and Pop made their living as a dancing duo in small New York jazz clubs. They were even in a picture once, but it flopped. Naturally they started teaching me to swing dance from the time I was a little boy. Pop showed me how to gracefully direct a girl into turns and dips. Mom would practice with me, bending down low so I could get my arm over her head. When I got older, I didn't dance as much. I was always interested in more "manly" things--playing baseball, building things, getting an honest job. I still took my girlfriends dancing from time to time. They were always impressed with my dance moves, but none of them would marry me. Too grumpy for them, I guess.

I'm retired now, and I don't do much with my day except watch the Westerns channel and go for walks. But ever since I found out that the bar has swing dances on Monday nights, I go there every week and teach the young people what my parents taught me.

Oh man! Sorry about the epic lack of posts. I've been crazy busy. Besides working a lot, I've also been hosting lots of couchsurfers (which has been amazing), getting some paid go-go dancing gigs, and getting a new tattoo. Exciting stuff. Anyway, I'm working on two more posts about people I saw today. They're just not finished yet. More tomorrow.